I am definitely a city girl. I love the traffic and the people and the closeness of buildings and the fact that anything I want is basically right around the corner.
That being said, my family does own a farm. 36 acres out in the middle of nowhere. It's a thirty minute drive to the nearest Starbucks. It is not my ideal place, but it's home. It's where family is.
So far it's still pretty new. There isn't a lot going on. Yet. The orchard has gone in on the other side of the lake. I think it's like thirty trees? It's a mixture of fruit and nuts with different species of cherry, pear, apple, almond, walnut.... and others. I only listen about half of the time, but the list is pretty crazy. They all just look like sticks right now but apparently some have leafed out from transportation hibernation and some even sent out a bloom or two. And course these are added to the old citrus ones that we've had over the years and even over a couple houses now. Lemons, limes, pomegranates, and avocados. We also have a couple blueberry bushes going and a series of strawberries in an old horse watering barrel.
The real gardens will be in the field next to the house. They'll be up in raised beds that are built up by concrete blocks into these cool geometric designs that will lay across the field like a quilt. I think I'll like them best when they are done because I don't like lugging around and lining up 8"x16" blocks that do not actually line up ninety degrees to each other. (And yes, I edited my language heavily for that sentence.) I couldn't walk for two days after that without crying. I couldn't sleep without crying for my poor legs. But hey I found out that I do actually lift with my legs and not my back. Yay.
Nothing is growing out in the garden just yet but there are big plans for it. Any sort of vegetable you can think of (send requests if you are interested), grape vines, a couple more trees, and a social deck area in the middle of it. Yea, I'm really going to like it when it's done.
I don't know what the plan is for the rest of the fields. Might just be hay to be sold off to the neighbors who have horses and bison (There is a herd of bison up the street.) since that isn't that hard to grow. It's simply grass. We aren't planning on having any large animals such as horses, cows, or bison as of yet. The plan is to stay pretty small but we do have a couple animals.
The lake I've mentioned is actually pretty nice and encompasses the majority of our front yard. I think it's like an acre big? I don't know I don't do land measurements. But we finally got a boat out into it and found the fish. We have monster catfish and bass living in it. Like two to four foot long monsters. I've watched a shadow from the porch just sorta meander through the water. That shadow was freaking huge even from that sort of distance. (I'm never swimming in this lake.) But that means that there is good fishing to be had in these waters.
Of course we have our two puppies (I will forever call them puppies.) Two standard schnauzers, a salt and pepper and a black one. They've really taken to farm life after not having much yard in the previous house. And they are willing to ride in the back of the mule (the vehicle, not the animal).
Then we have the chickens. Nineteen of them. NOT dinner chickens, but egg layers. Again there is a mess of a list to describe their different breeds but I just call them the peeps. Non edible peeps. They are about two months old and will start laying in about four more. They were cute little chicks when they were first delivered and most of them are through their awkward adolescent stage and actually look like chickens. This past weekend, I helped let them out of their coops (homemade gypsy coops in teal, red, and white) for the first time. Now I understand the complete meaning about calling someone chicken. But they are cute and fun. Who knew I would like chickens? (Hint: I didn't.)
Along with the bird theme, we are getting about six ducks (imagine daffy duck not woodlands) also for eggs only. Well, eggs and pest control, just as the peeps are for eggs and compost and maybe pest control. Once again we are getting the ducks as tiny little babies and only letting them out when they are big. I have a slight concern with the catfish eyeing the ducks. I don't know how that works but I don't want the ducks to be fish food. They'll be staying in a little kids plastic playhouse. It actually looks really cute down by the lake.
So yea, the farm is coming along. Contact me if you are interested in visiting. The drive out there is a little long but I have it down to a science to cut off as much time as possible. (Seriously, I've cut off twenty minutes from my original drive time.) We'd love to have visitors to the farm.
(BTW, my farm drawing from earlier posts, is basically the view out our back door in the winter. It's gotten greener since then.)
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